The Discovery Files

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute have invented a "smart" headlight system that can improve visibility by constantly redirecting light to shine between particles of precipitation.

A Yale And Hebrew Universities' study of grasshoppers' diets shows that animals are an important part of organic matter decomposition.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are proposing a new spin on an old method: A switch from the use of silicon electronics back to vacuums as a medium for electron transport--exhibiting a significant paradigm shift in electronics.

Want to nail that tune that you've practiced and practiced? Maybe take a nap with the same melody playing during your sleep, provocative Northwestern University research suggests.

A team of researchers from Harvard University have invented a way to keep any metal surface free of ice and frost.

A laboratory test used to detect disease and perform biological research could be made more than three million times more sensitive, according to Princeton University researchers who combined standard biological tools with a breakthrough in nanotechnology.

Harvard University scientists and engineers seek to artificially mimic the collective behavior and "intelligence" of a bee colony with the goal of gaining a greater understanding of fields such as entomology, developmental biology, amorphous computing and electrical engineering.

Text messaging is a surprisingly good way to get candid responses to sensitive questions, according to a research team at the University of Michigan and the New School for Social Research.

A study by the University of Notre Dame and Princeton and Duke universities finds that high-ranking male baboons recover more quickly from injuries and are less likely to become ill than other males.

Research conducted at The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center shows that birds and other animals change their behavior in response to manmade noise, but human clamor doesn't just affect animals. Because many animals also pollinate plants or disperse their seeds, human noise can have ripple effects on plants too.

An Ohio State University study suggests that people aren't very good at media multitasking, but do it anyway because it makes them feel good.

Researchers at Purdue University are developing a technique that uses nanotechnology to harvest energy from hot pipes or engine components to potentially recover energy wasted in factories, power plants and cars.

Analysis of data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive detector deployed in deep ice at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, provided insight into one of the most enduring mysteries in physics, the production of cosmic rays.

Researchers from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Case Western Reserve University found a fossil which indicates that between three and four million years ago, there were at least two pre-human species living on the Earth.

Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital reveal a remarkably simple but previously hidden organizational structure within the brain.